Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes

Adeyinka Muhammad Mendes is the Resident Scholar and Imam at the Muslim Center of Greater Princeton. He is a native Ohioan of Yoruba, Brazilian, and African-American ancestry who also spent some of his formative years in Nigeria and Houston, Texas. He has a background of working with interfaith, Muslim, academic, permacultural, and peace-building institutions. Adeyinka's studies and work have taken him to countries around the world including Syria, Mauritania, Morocco, Singapore, Turkey, Senegal, Malaysia, and back to Nigeria. He is fluent in Arabic, received a degree in Arabic Language and Cultural Studies from the Ohio State University, and has been trained for over two decades in the spiritual, scholastic, and aesthetic traditions of Muslim civilization by teachers from around the world. Adeyinka is particularly passionate about uplifting youth, empowering women, and inspiring African-Americans with knowledge of their spiritual and intellectual legacy in order to build that more compassionate and sacred world for which our hearts yearn. He currently resides in New Jersey with his wife and children.